Free credit reports still months away

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 6, 2004 | by Shannon Buggs, New York Times

REMEMBER those free credit reports Congress said you can request from the major credit bureaus once every 12 months starting in December? Well, don't expect to get a free peek at your credit report any time soon. Apparently, our lawmakers left enough wiggle room in the order that the Federal Trade Commission can interpret Dec. 1 not as a deadline to distribute free reports but as a start date for getting it done. Based on the agency's final rules on disseminating the no-charge reports issued this month, freebie requests won't be honored in all parts of the country until Sept. 1, 2005. The bureaus still have to give you a free report if you lost a job, receive welfare, got rejected for a credit card, insurance policy or job, or had your identity hijacked.

The only way to get a free report now without having had something bad happen to you is by living in a state that has passed a law guaranteeing you this right. Texas hasn't.

Otherwise, plan on paying or waiting for the privilege.

Residents of Western states will begin to see their requests honored starting Dec. 1, and Midwestern states on March 1, 2005. Texas will be in a group of Southern states beginning June 1 next year. Consumers in the remaining states will have to wait until Sept. 1, 2005.

But like the FTC, the credit bureaus really don't have to abide by a deadline.

"During times of unusually heavy request volume," the government lets the bureaus put consumers on a wait list for a free report or tell them to ask again at a "reasonable later time."

The FTC did tell the credit bureaus to have contingency plans that will anticipate a large number of calls, but it doesn't require them to work out problems so that consumers get their reports sooner rather than later. Therefore, you should plan on delays rather than quick responses.

So, how do you make your request? Well, details of how that will work are not out yet.

The FTC is requiring the nationwide credit reporting agencies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- to create a "centralized source" for collecting consumer requests for free reports. The FTC has mandated that one-stop shopping be linked to a Web site, a toll-free number and a mailing address.

A word of warning: The bureaus may euphemistically refer to the free reports as "annual file disclosures." Don't let the jargon throw you.